


Diamonds and Rust

by midnightjuly (roadmarks)



Category: Resident Evil (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 16:50:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roadmarks/pseuds/midnightjuly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The virus burns under her skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diamonds and Rust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shulik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shulik/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, Shulik! I was so psyched when I read your Yuletide letter; the only problem was that I wanted to write every single thing you mentioned, and then ended up spinning off into a different (but related, I promise!) direction. I'm sorry Carlos and Jill didn't make it into this one -- I'm hoping to get a chance to write some more ficlets in a similar vein over the holidays, so I will send them your way if I do. :D
> 
> This one's AU from the end of the first movie. Rain's not quite dead, but she's not quite undead, either.

Rain can feel the virus under her skin sometimes, just underneath. It itches almost the same way restlessness always did, back when she’d find herself in the shooting range in the middle of the night, taking down target after target until she felt like she could sleep again, safe in the knowledge that she could face down whatever came her way.

She has no shortage of targets these days, but sleep doesn’t come easy anymore. She needs it less and less these days, anyway, and it's easier to just keep going than to stay still long enough to pay attention to her own thoughts.

*

She wonders, sometimes, about Alice and Matt; she'd been so angry at first, even though the rational part of her brain (which is a lot less rational as of late, and a lot more ruthless) knew that they had no choice then to take her down and leave her behind so they could get out before the hive locked down. They had no way of knowing she’d wake up from a bullet from the head, the T-Virus burning out everything her human body couldn’t heal itself; she was feverish for days, incoherent and half feral, until she came back to herself months later, waking up in an Umbrella facility, hallways painted with blood, and the streets outside littered with glass, all eerily, impossibly quiet.

She’d hated them both until the day she ran into Matt, seeing his eyes peering out from an impossible body (but then, what’s impossible these days?). The only recognition he’d shown when he saw her was the same look of recognition a cat might give to a mouse. She’d barely made it out with her life, such as it was, and as she made it to safety, she slumped against the wall and had to take a few deep breaths until the persistent hammering of her heart stopped, and by the time she was calm again, the hatred had drained away. It’s hard to hate someone she knows was once a decent human being -- hell, just _human_ , period. And that's the thought that ends her anger against Alice, too -- because Alice was the best of them. She had woken up a blank slate, and she chose to love and help and fight, when she so easily could have chosen cowardice.

*

She’s not surprised when she finally, finally runs into Alice again. The surprising thing is that Alice isn’t like Matt, isn’t even like Rain herself. Alice has got the gun on her before Rain can so much as move a finger, and she grins, holding her hands up in surrender. “That’s one hell of a welcome,” she says, and Alice shakes her head.

“You died,” she says, finger tightening on the trigger. “You died, and you came back to life, and you died _again_.”

“Yeah, well,” Rain says, shrugging. “It's a great trick at parties.” They look at each other for a long moment, and then Alice lowers the gun, Rain putting her hands down. “Hey,” she says. “Last time we were together, I think you mentioned something about a kiss?”

Alice laughs, and she’s moving impossibly quick again, this time to wrap Rain in a hug so tight it almost hurts. Rain doesn’t quite cling -- she’s too proud to _cling_ , though only just -- but she tips her head into the crook of Alice’s neck, digs the tips of her fingers into Alice’s shoulders hard enough she’d be surprised if there weren’t bruises afterwards.

“It’s so good to see you,” Alice says, pressing her lips against Rain’s hair. “How did you get out?”

Rain steps back, drops her hands from Alice. “Yeah,” she says. “About that.”

*

The thing about reunions in a post-apocalyptic world is that they don’t tend to be that happy, or last that long. They get two days zed-free, holed up together and recuperating from recent injuries. But then they run into a particularly nasty group of survivors, followed by a zombie horde that just won’t stop coming. Rain and Alice are back to back, and then Alice is on the ground and Rain -- Rain sees red, and when she comes back to herself, the whole damn horde’s on the ground too. Alice is knelt over her, and there are tears in her eyes.

“Did I get ‘em?” Rain asks.

“Every last one,” she says, and Rain does her best at a grin. She sits up as much as she can -- which isn’t very much, and her stomach lurches when she sees the damage. “Don’t move,” Alice says.

“I don’t think moving’s gonna do much more damage than they did,” she says, and Alice helps her move to the side of a building. 

The bites from those undead bastards must have triggered something, because the virus is screaming in her brain and in her blood again, worse than it’s been since she woke up without a scar after taking a bullet to the head. It’s unfair, she thinks, that it’s going to take her now, after taking everything -- every _one_ else, then letting her have Alice back again. 

“I’m not losing you again,” Alice says, cupping Rain’s cheek in her hand.

“I think I’m having what they call deja vu,” Rain says, and Alice laughs, choked and ugly.

“Don’t you dare,” she says, and Rain closes her eyes for a long moment. When she opens them again, she sees the fear written across Alice's face -- not of her, she realizes, or at least not what she could do to Alice physically, save for leaving her behind.

She closes her eyes again, the itching underneath her skin hardly restless anymore, turned into full-on fever, pushing her, and she can almost smell Alice’s blood, imagines ripping her throat out with her teeth.

Alice’s hand is cool against her face, and she focuses on that, letting the chill spread through her. She doesn’t know how long they sit like that, Alice’s hands are steady on her skin, their breathing matched, until finally she's able to blink her eyes back open.

“You good?”

“I’m always good,” she says, and Alice laughs, delighted this time, tipping their foreheads together. Rain sighs, letting her eyes slip closed again. The virus isn’t gone -- it's not a fairy tale, there's nothing that'll ever burn all the badness out of her -- but it’s barely a whisper right now, nothing that she can’t drown out with a bit of help.


End file.
